How to Control Smart TV with Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo does multitude of tasks for you. There is a long list of Alexa commands for your Amazon Echo. And now you can also add a few more commands to control TV with Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Plus and Echo Spot.

To control smart TV with Alexa, you need a Logitech Harmony Hub. The voice enabled Bluetooth speaker is being improved every day by Amazon, a brand that has also launched other such devices like Tap, Dot, and Echo Show. No matter which brand of TV you have, you can always control your TV using Amazon Echo.

What is Logitech Harmony Hub?

Logitech Harmony Hub enables you to control all your Wi-Fi enabled devices with your smartphone. From morning to evening, you are not supposed to press multiple switches of your microwave, air conditioner, lights, thermostats, coffee maker, locks, and other devices. Use your smartphone to operate all your consumer durables with a single Logitech Harmony Hub. You can set up this hub on your computer or phone, and then control 8 entertainment devices. This hub works with more than 270, 000 devices including your TV, satellite or cable box, Blu-ray player, Apple TV, Roku, Sonos, game consoles and more.

How to Control Smart TV with Alexa and Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Plus and Echo Spot

The process is quite simple; you need to pair Logitech Harmony Hub and Amazon Echo to experience voice controlled television at home.

Step #1: Launch Alexa app.

Step #2: Next, open Home and then tap on Skills.

Step #3: Look for Harmony.

Step #4: Choose the blue icon.

Step #5: Now you need to enable Harmony Skill.

Step #6: Finally, log in to Harmony from Alexa app.

After Alexa is paired to Harmony Hub, you can easily turn your television ON and OFF automatically. Harmony knows the channels available with your provider; however, you are not able to ask for a specific channel unless your TV is connected to cable. If you have an HD cable box that connects through HDMI, or if you are using a Tivo, you need to create actions in Harmony from Smart TV settings.

Since Harmony has not set up an Action function for volume control, it is not available via Alexa. In the absence of Action function, you can set up an IFTTT recipe to switch inputs.

Amazon is undoubtedly doing excellent job by introducing revolutionary features to its products. After reading this tutorial, you should be able to control Samsung TV with Alexa app. Apart from Echo, you can also use Amazon Echo Dot to control TV.